Gennady
Stolyarov II is a science fiction novelist and philosophical
essayist, and is Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator.
He lives in Chicago.

ATHEISM: FACTS AND MYTHS

by Gennady Stolyarov II

I do not seek here to convince anyone to become an atheist. Instead,
I wish only to discuss what atheism actually is and to dispel
the all too frequent misconceptions regarding it. Many persons of
religious persuasions assail atheism without truly understanding it.
What they attack is not atheism as such, but rather a straw man
constructed by themselves and consisting of every possible idea that
they do not advocate. Much pointless negativity and intolerance
might be avoided if only individuals of all intellectual persuasions
became aware of the actual ideas of which atheism consists, the
reasons for which many adhere to it, and common misconceptions held
regarding it.

What Atheism Is

Dictionary.com defines “atheism” as:
1. The doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. Disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Further related definitions are provided by the American Heritage
Dictionary:
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

Thus, there exists a simple test to distinguish an atheist from a
theist. One needs only ask an individual, “Do you believe in the
existence of any kind of god or gods?” If the person thus questioned
answers in the affirmative, then he is a theist. If he answers in
the negative, then he is an atheist.

An atheist does not believe in any kind of god or gods. But
what exactly are these “gods” that atheists do not believe
in? Princeton University’s WordNet defines “god” as:

1. The
supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent
and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the
object of worship in monotheistic religions.
2. Any supernatural being worshipped as controlling some
part of the world or some aspect of life or who is the
personification of a force.

So an atheist is an individual who does not believe that there exist
any kinds of supernatural beings controlling any
aspects of the world, of human lives, or of the entirety of
existence. It is crucial to note that an atheist disbelieves
specifically in the notion that a person controls these
aspects of existence, or that the forces controlling them can be
personified. An atheist does not necessarily reject the
existence of impersonal forces controlling or guiding
inanimate or animate aspects of the world. For instance, atheists
can and often do believe that there exist natural laws of physics,
of morality, of economics, and of biological evolution. Atheists can
and often do believe in the existence of large macroscopic orders
that characterize aspects of existence. What atheists reject is the
idea that some non-human, superhuman, and supernatural person
inaugurated those orders into being and/or actively controls them.

Myths about Atheism

Myth 1: Atheists hate God

The word “atheism” originates from the Greek “atheos,” meaning “godless.”
There is no hatred or even dislike of any god or gods implied in
either the word or its origins. Atheism is not the same as
antitheism, or opposition to gods and to those who
believe in gods.

Atheists do not actively despise any god, in part because it is
difficult to despise what one does not believe to exist. Many
monotheists make the mistake of alleging that atheists hate their
God in particular. But if someone were to suggest that atheists hate
Vishnu or Zeus or Thor or Amon-Ra, such allegations would clearly be
recognized as empirically false. Many atheists not only do not hate
those deities; they enjoy reading myths and stories where such
deities play an active role. In many such stories, the gods even
behave in an admirable manner – and most atheists are ready to
acknowledge this. What, then, would make the Christian or Jewish or
Muslim God so different in their eyes?

Indeed, absolutely nothing in an atheist’s worldview needs
necessarily prevent him from reading the texts of the monotheist
faiths and deriving from them similar utility, enjoyment, and moral
instruction to what he might derive from Hindu, Greek, Norse, or
Egyptian mythology.

When atheists read about gods, they evaluate the gods as literary
characters. Those literary characters may behave admirably or not –
and it is up to the individual atheist to judge the individual
literary god in each particular case. What atheists are not
ready to do, however, is to evaluate the morality or immorality of
particular actions in a text based solely on whether any god
performed or abstained from them, praised or condemned them.
Atheists are ready to condemn the Old Testament God’s command that
Saul exterminate the infants of Amalek just as they are prepared to
criticize Athena’s decision to turn Arachne into a spider for being
a better weaver than the goddess.

Myth 2: Atheists hate those who believe in a god

Atheists do not believe in any gods, but virtually all atheists
believe in the existence of some kind of moral standards for human
behavior. Since they do not believe in any gods, they do not believe
that moral standards originate from gods. Thus, in an atheist’s view,
whether somebody else believes in a god is as irrelevant to
that person’s morality as his color of hair or his preferred flavor
of ice cream. What is relevant, however, is whether an individual’s
actions show him to be a fundamentally good and moral person. Many
atheists will disagree regarding what this means, but they will
concur that an individual’s religious convictions are not a
determinant of his moral character. Again, those who condemn theists
simply because the latter believe in a god are not atheists, but
rather antitheists.

If a person’s religious convictions have nothing in common with his
adherence to the atheist’s moral standard of choice, then the
consistent atheist will disregard religious convictions altogether
when forming his judgments of others. An atheist is often as likely
to find good people among the religious as among fellow atheists –
and he might often prefer the company of some of the former to that
of some of the latter.

Atheists do not necessarily dislike any particular religion or its
adherents. What atheists detest, however, is religious bigotry,
hypocrisy, and intolerance. Whenever any group of individuals seeks
to impose its views on others by force or uses the rhetoric
of religion as justification for coercing, expropriating, and
tyrannizing over others, the conscientious atheist will be outraged
– as he should be.

Myth 3: Atheists advocate socialism, totalitarianism, or the
welfare state

While it is true that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not believe
in any god, atheism as such has no necessary implications in the
political realm – other than perhaps an opposition to any
integration between church and state, which is a stance shared by
many religious individuals as well. There do exist socialist
atheists and welfare-statist atheists, but there also exist
conservative atheists, libertarian atheists, and atheists adhering
to virtually every other political creed.

Indeed, atheism is much older than virtually any prevalent political
philosophy of our time. The first known famous atheist was the
ancient Greek thinker Diagoras in the late 5th century B.C. In more
recent times, atheism was espoused by such thinkers as the
Enlightenment thinker Paul-Henri Thiry, the Baron d’Holbach
(1723-1789), the analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970),
and Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the founder of Objectivism. Truly,
atheists are historically represented within a tremendous range of
political and philosophical movements – and it is impossible to
classify all atheists under a single political or ethical umbrella.
Indeed, the disagreements among atheists as to what constitutes
moral behavior or a proper social order can often exceed in their
extent the disagreements between some atheists and some religious
individuals on these issues.

Nothing prevents an atheist from adhering to a philosophy of
individual rights, limited government, and free markets. Murray
Rothbard, one of the 20th century’s most prolific free-market
economists and libertarian political theorists, was an atheist – as
is the psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, who opposes state control over
individuals’ “mental health.”

Indeed, according to columnist
Alan Caruba,
“American atheists are more likely to object to abuses of power by
government than most people… Conservative and Libertarian political
values, smaller and less intrusive government, fiscal prudence,
laissez-faire capitalism, and individualism would seem to suit most,
but not all, atheists better than some form of socialism or
one-world government philosophy.”

Myth 4: Atheists do not believe in objective moral standards

There exist numerous ways to arrive at an understanding of morality
without any reference to a deity. One can employ natural law theory
– as exemplified in the works of Aristotle, John Locke, and Murray
Rothbard. Alternatively, one can espouse utilitarianism – as did
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill – argue for the evolutionary
origins of morality in the manner of Herbert Spencer and Friedrich
Hayek. Like the Enlightenment philosophers and Ayn Rand, one can see
morality as originating from rational self-interest. One can follow
the empiricist consequentialism of Milton Friedman and try to arrive
at morality by observing the outcomes of particular actions and
human institutions. Or one can deduce it from first principles like
Rene Descartes. Alternatively, like William James, one can conceive
of morality as a set of rules that happen to “work” in a pragmatic
sense.

"Not only is atheism not a religion; it is not even a
philosophy or worldview. Atheism is simply a negative – a
disbelief in a deity. It does not imply a
positive
creed of any sort."

Myth 5: Atheism is a religion

Not only is atheism not a religion; it is not even a
philosophy or worldview. Atheism is simply a negative – a
disbelief in a deity. It does not imply a positive
creed of any sort. Atheists disagree extensively amongst
themselves regarding metaphysical questions such as whether
the universe had a beginning in time or whether it always
existed. They disagree regarding epistemological issues such
as the proper sources of and criteria for human knowledge.
Atheists range from strict deductive rationalists to
complete empiricists to those who reject the empiricist/rationalist
dichotomy altogether. The only epistemological idea atheists
agree on is that truth cannot be obtained through divine
revelations or commandments. However, some atheists will
acknowledge the tremendous value and truth contained in the
moral systems accompanying many religions. Nothing
necessarily bars an atheist from adhering to some or most of
Christian or Jewish moral teachings. If he agrees with them,
however, it will not be because God told him to, but because
he perceives other extra-religious justifications for these
ideas and standards of conduct.

Myth 6: Atheists seek to politically suppress religion

Statistics
compiled in 2005 show that the combined number of
“atheists, agnostics, and non-believers in God” in the
United States ranges from 3 to 9 percent of the population.
When explicit atheists are considered alone, the percentage
is likely to be at the lower end of this range. Alan Caruba
writes,
“As best as can be determined, only 3% of Americans are
atheists. What matters most to them is their personal
integrity. They are, almost by definition, the least
authoritarian of groups you can find and the least likely to
attempt to convert someone to their views.” Atheists are a
demographically insignificant minority and do not have the
political power to suppress anybody’s religious beliefs
even if they wanted to. Furthermore, not a single
prominent politician in the United States is known to be an
atheist – indicating how little political influence atheists
actually have.

Any attempts to infringe upon the religious views and
practices of some Americans are currently made by other
individuals who claim to be religious – and often of the
same religion as those whose rights they seek to infringe.
Indeed, much of the opposition to religious expression on
government or private property stems from those who endeavor
to suppress speech, ceremonies, and displays by some
religious groups for fear of “offending” other
religious groups.

Reasons for Atheism

Why do atheists reject the existence of any kind of deity?

Reason 1: Lack of Evidence for God’s Existence

Simply put, atheists do not see any evidence that suggests
that a deity might actually exist. Atheists do not observe
any phenomena that can only be explained by invoking a deity.
If every aspect of existence – from atoms to morality – can
be accounted for without any mention of a god, then belief
in a god is simply superfluous and adds nothing substantive
to one’s understanding.
Occam’s Razor
states that entities should not be multiplied beyond
necessity and that, all other things equal, the simplest
explanation for a phenomenon is the correct one. So far,
atheists have been unable to find any phenomenon for whose
explanation the concept of a god is indispensable.

Reason 2: Lack of “Faith”

The term “faith” has multiple meanings, many of which
atheists do not reject. Atheists can and often do exhibit
“faith” in the sense of trust in other people, institutions,
or natural phenomena. They also exhibit “faith” in the sense
of a belief in some kind of idea. They do not, however,
exhibit “faith” in the sense of a “belief that is not based
on proof” (Dictionary.com).
Many religious individuals will readily admit that there
exists no evidence for the existence of a god; they will
then claim that they believe in a god nonetheless, because
they possess this faculty of “faith.” An atheist possesses
no such faculty.

Reason 3: Lack of Convincing Arguments for God’s
Existence

Atheists are not necessarily closed to the possibility of
ever believing in a god, but they require that they be
presented with a convincing reason for why they should.
While many religious individuals have sought to present
arguments for belief, atheists have largely not found them
compelling. This does not mean that theists ought to stop
trying. Rather, they should recognize which arguments have
failed to convince atheists, despite having been tried time
and again. August Berkshire offers a useful list of some of
these in his “21
Unconvincing Arguments for God.” When theists
begin to present new arguments that encourage atheists to
approach the question of the existence of a god in a
hitherto unexplored manner, they can be sure that many
atheists will give such ideas serious consideration.

Reason 4: Desire to Avoid Rituals and Institutional
Entanglements

Most religious systems are not merely abstract networks of
interrelated beliefs. They also entail adherence to a
specific social hierarchy and a highly particular set
of customs, rituals, and ceremonies. Many atheists
simply do not wish to recognize the authority of any
particular group of men who call themselves priests or
pastors. They do not wish to undertake a certain set of
dietary prohibitions or regulations regarding how they must
or must not spend certain days of the week. Atheists tend to
dislike entangling abstract belief systems with concrete
institutions, as the institutions will often do great
discredit to even the very principles they claim to uphold.

It is true that a person who wishes to avoid such
institutional entanglements is still in theory free to
believe in the existence of some kind of deity. Most gods,
however, are so constructed (and atheists believe that gods
are human constructs) as to require highly concrete
and particular forms of obedience, such as attendance
at a church or temple, the offering of certain material
sacrifices, the singing of specific songs, the uttering of
specific sequences of words, and adherence to extremely
thorough prescriptions governing everything from birth to
marriage to the conduct of meals. An individual is free to
invent a god that does not require such forms of worship,
but at that point he would quite explicitly be creating
a deity, not finding an already existing deity
outside of himself. It is as difficult to believe in the
existence of a god of one’s own imagining as it is to think
that a fictional character that one has just put into a
story actually lives and breathes.

Reason 5: Upbringing and Fundamental Intellectual
Framework

Just as many individuals become certain of their religious
convictions from being raised in a particular faith, so do
many atheists lack a belief in a deity in part because they
were not raised with such a belief. None of their parents
and few other adult authority figures in their lives
actively encouraged or cultivated a belief in a god, so no
such belief emerged. In the meantime, the young implicit
atheists developed an entire worldview which did not require
the presence of a god to explain any aspect of existence.
Many of the conclusions which an atheist with this
background has arrived at and implemented in his everyday
life are so deeply rooted in his basic worldview that to
introduce an entirely foreign element – like a god – into
such a worldview would overturn everything and leave the
atheist confused and skeptical of the morality of even
elementarily good actions. Many of the same ethical and
practical conclusions are, of course, consistent with both
belief and disbelief in a god, but there is no guarantee
that abandoning an intellectual framework that took a
lifetime to develop will lead the atheist to develop another
equally formidable framework in a much shorter time
period. The same argument, of course, applies to a religious
individual with respect to his faith – especially if such a
faith underlies the majority of his ethical and practical
conduct. It is not advisable for him to abandon his
religious framework unless he is certain to replace it with
a more extensively developed non-religious one. Otherwise he
might lose the motive to pursue actions that are
moral irrespective of their justification.

Reason 6: Conviction that Certain Ideas about Gods are
Self-Contradictory

Many atheists take issue with the specific attributes that
believers ascribe to particular gods. This particularly
applies to the monotheist faiths, where God is most often
characterized as simultaneously omnipotent, omniscient, and
omnibenevolent – an inherent contradiction according to many
atheists. Furthermore, many atheists are skeptical of the
idea that a God created the universe, particularly if they
do not believe that the universe ever was or needed to be “created.”
When examining the gods of other faiths – deities somewhat
more limited in their powers – atheists often perceive
contradictions in the formulations of those gods as well, or
at least a lack of empirical evidence that the gods have the
powers that they are thought to have or dwell in locations
described as their homes. For instance, despite numerous
individuals having climbed Mount Olympus, Zeus has been
nowhere to be found.

As atheists vary dramatically in the specific content of
their positive convictions, they will diverge substantially
as to the more specific arguments they will present for
their disbelief in a god. My own “Five
Arguments for the Non-Existence of God” are
offered as some of my personal reasons for atheism – though
they are not necessarily shared by atheists at large.

Conclusion

Atheism has too often been unjustly smeared as an opposition
to morality or a totalitarian dogma advocating mass
extermination of religious persons. It is nothing of the
sort. It is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but rather
the absence of one particular kind of belief. In the
positive contents of their worldviews, atheists diverge from
one another as dramatically as they might from certain
religious worldviews. Many atheists might find closer
intellectual kinship with some religious persons than with
some other atheists.

Nothing in atheism dictates opposition to religion or
intolerance of religious individuals. On the contrary,
there exists a tremendous potential for positive exchanges –
both material and intellectual – between those who believe
in a god and those who do not. While some atheists are
indeed of dubious moral standing, so is a roughly
proportionate number among the adherents of any religion. It
is not atheism or religiosity that leads some to desire to
oppress, coerce, intimidate, slander, and demean others.
Rather, it is sheer savagery and inhumanity.
Against this inhumanity the good persons of every creed can
unite.